NAME

dist - introduction to dist

DESCRIPTION

The dist package is a set of tools meant to ease the construction and
maintenance of portable software. There are four distinct parts in
dist, and it is also meant to be used with two external products, which
are publicly available: mailagent and patch.
The first component is the Configure script generator, which is a
portability tool. It is automatically build up by metaconfig from your
sources and a set of units. Ideally, the end-user receiving your source
code will simply have to read your README file, run the Configure
script (which is self-documented), and then run make. Your package
should then build cleanly on every UNIX platform.
The second component is the Makefile.SH generator, which is a generic
configured Makefile, reusing some of the information figured out by
Configure. Although you may write your own Makefile and then use
makeSH to transform it into a Makefile.SH, it is better to write a
generic Jmakefile description, which does not rely on a particular
position within the source tree, and then use jmake to recursively
build your Makefiles.
The third component is the package generator, which is used when it's
time to build up the shell archives used to distribute your program.
Although you may use your own archiving mechanism, the one included
here knows about RCS files and will properly check out the lattest
revisions, leaving your working files alone. The makedist program will
also perform Copyright expansion, an useful feature when you share
source files among more than one program, placed under distinct
Copyright information.
The fourth and latest component is the patch generator, used to make
updates of your sources, which can later be applied on the original
distribution by using the patch program.
Before using any of the dist programs, you should probably identify
your package by running the packinit program, which will create a
.package file in the top-level directory of your package.

PROFILE

Commands having a set of meaningful options (other than -h or -V) can
also take arguments from the ~/.dist_profile file, or whatever file the
DIST environment variable points to. Each line of the file is in the
format:
profile-component: value
whith shell-style comments (#) allowed provided they start the line.
Each command looks for a profile component entry matching its name and
loads the value as if it were arguments specified on the command line.
Those arguments precede any other argument specified manually, in case
order is meaningful.
Some commands may also be configured from within the profile, by
setting a specific variable attached to the command by a profile entry
looking like this:
cmdname-variable: value
For instance, assuming the variable c-files is recognized by the
metaconfig program, its default value could be overwritten by this
profile entry:
metaconfig-c-files: suitablevalue
Only the first '-' after the command name is part of the syntax, the
other one used in the variable name is pure convention. Please refer to
the manual page of each command for a list of valid profile variables
which may be set.

FILES

.MT Temporary directory created by metaconfig and friends.
.newer A list of files newer than patchlevel.h, used by the
patching tools.
.package Main configuration file used by most of the dist tools
to make them smart.
ChangeLog The file where changes are recorded. Its name may be
configured by running packinit, but this is the default
"generic" name under which it is referred to within the
documentation.
Configure The generated configuration script.
Glossary A list of all the known portability symbols known by
metaconfig. This file is located in the dist library
directory.
I.fui Cross-reference file generated by metaxref, sorted by
file, unit, item.
I.uif Cross-reference file generated by metaxref, sorted by
unit, item, file.
Index A list of all the rules known by jmake. This file is
located in the dist library directory.
Jmakefile Generic makefile description used by jmake.
MANIFEST List of all the files to be included in the
distribution. Usually a copy (not a link) of
MANIFEST.new.
MANIFEST.new List of all the files to be taken into account by the
dist tools.
Makefile.SH The generated configured makefile (via Jmakefile) or
hand-generated Makefile making use of known metaconfig
symbols.
Obsolete A list of obsolete symbol used and their new
equivalents.
RCS Directory where RCS files are stored.
README Main file explaining how to build your package.
U Private unit directory.
Wanted File used by metaconfig, listing all the symbols used by
the sources.
bugs Directory where patches are stored.
check.extra Extra files present in MANIFEST.new, generated by
manicheck.
check.want Missing files from MANIFEST.new, generated by manicheck.
config_h.SH Generated config.h template.
confmagic.h Magic symbol remapping, activated via metaconfig's -M
option.
hints This directory lists all the configuration hints for
your package.
patchlevel.h File recording your package patch level, should not be
part of MANIFEST.new, but may be listed in MANIFEST, at
your discretion.
users File recording the users of your package, generated by
mailagent's package command (see the MailAuthor.U unit
and mailagent 3.0).

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variable is paid attention to:
DIST Location of the dist profile, defaults to
~/.dist_profile. This variable is subject to ~name
substitution, even if your shell does not support it.

AUTHORS

By chronological order:
Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com> (dist 2.0 in 1988)
Harlan Stenn <harlan@mumps.pfcs.com> (worked on dist 3.0 1990-1992)
Raphael Manfredi <ram@hptnos02.grenoble.hp.com> (dist 3.0 and
integration 1991-1995)
Please look at the Credits file in the distribution source tree for a
list of all the known contributors.